1. Fifty years had passed between the publication of Alcott's Old-Fashioned Girl and this book.  How many clues can you find in the first two chapters that Elnora is living in a more modern age?

2. Eagerness for education and sensitivity to the arts, especially music, are marks of the heroine's specialness in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and in this book.  What similarities and differences can you find between the two heroines and their stories with regard to these two issues? Consider particularly the chapters in which Elnora gets hold of the violin, and the chapter about her graduation.

3. There have been flawed adults in many of the children's books we have read.   Think of as many as you can, and compare both the nature of their flaws and the role the flaws have in the story to those of Mrs. Comstock, Aunt Margaret, Uncle Wesley, and Elnora's deceased father.  (The flaws of Billy's deceased father are only too obvious; he is included as a social problem, not a psychological one, but note what Elnora tells Billy about him.)  P.S. Don't count Mr. Toad!  You may want to consider chapter 12; you should look particularly the chapter in which Wesley brings Billy home.  Note that this book could be shortened significantly by leaving out the episodes with Billy.  What would be lost?

4. Both Wind in the Willows and this book have a lot to say about food.  How do the "menus" resemble each other and differ?  Do you think food has the same function in both books?  Consider the food in the second half of the book, after Philip comes into the picture, as well as the lunchbox scenes.

5. Discuss the kinds of work and the workers we see in this book.  Compare them especially to our previous working characters, especially in Ragged Dick and Old Fashioned Girl.  You might also consider Mr. Toad's futile efforts to impersonate a washing woman on the barge.

6. Porter is clearly concerned about the disappearing wilderness and about the ethics of human interaction with the natural world.  Choose some key scenes and discuss how children could have begun to learn, nearly a century ago, about what we now consider ecological concerns.